Switching to sand... Possible?

[millerb7]

I have a mbuna tank right now with all fish being around 2". I have gravel substrate. I was wondering if I could safety switch to sand substrate and how I'd even go about doing that?

I don't currently have any spare tanks to house the fish, and I imagine putting sand in and then water would make it very cloudy for a few days so I'd need to let things settle?

Just curious how one would go about switching the substrate or do I just leave what I have?

 

[LyndaB]

When I switched from gravel to sand with multiple tanks, I left the fish in the tanks, removed 50% of the water, took a little whisk broom pan to scoop out the gravel and then laid a dinner plate kitty corner in the tank and let the sand drift down into the tank that way, which eliminated a lot of dust and didn't stress the fish.

Just be sure you rinse, rinse, rinse and repeat with that sand PRIOR to placement in the tank.

 

[tarpon]

Like said before i left the fish in the tank, i didnt drain any water tho.
I rinsed the sand alot and used what i call the bottle method which virtually eliminates water cloudiness.
You funnel the washed sand into a 2 liter bottle, submerge that in the tank and turn it upside down and let the sand fall into the tank. The cloudy particles stay in the bottle and you turn the bottle upright and lift the bottle out with the cloudy water and discard the cloudy water and repeat

Theres a video on youtube

 

[LyndaB]

I've never heard the bottle thing. That's pretty clever.

 

[Dary421]

I've never heard the bottle thing. That's pretty clever.

It works great.., I used a smaller water bottle ( filled with sand ) to fill in the little nooks and crannies that the larger bottle wouldn't go..

 

[skiweeangel]

Wow, wish I knew that trick when I changed over! :smack:

 

[tarpon]

I learned about it by watching the youtube video.

 

[ronnieroach]

sweeeet!! im so switching to sand now that i know its so easy

when you guys say rinse the sand though, how do you do that? i have only done gravel & i'm pretty sure you dont use a colender for sand soo hows that go down? lol

 

[skiweeangel]

I used a pillow case that I had put through a soap less wash.

 

[toddnbecka]

I just put about 1/4 of a 50 lb bag into a 5 gallon bucket and rinse it with the hose while stirring the sand with the other hand until the water runs off clear.

 

[LyndaB]

I use a 30 gallon plastic storage tub from Home Depot.

 

[Dary421]

Just remember that the finer sand grains will eventually make their way tithe bottom of the tank exposing the coarser layer of sand or gravel back to the top again.... I tried covering my ugly black semi coarse sand / gravel with fine white sand a few months back and after a few days the black gravel started to magically reappear thru the white sand bed..., many more dosing of white sand only prolonged the inevitable .., the coarser grain won in the end and took over the surface again.

 

[NYgiantsRP]

I just risned it, took the fish out and dumped the sand in my tank, all the sand sank to the bottom immedietly and didnt cloud at all. Did I have some sort of special sand?haha

skiweeangel that didnt ruin you washing machine? I would think the weight would mess it up.

 

[ronnieroach]

haha giants i think they meant they washed the case w/o soap, then added the sand and rinsed it in the pillow case.. not put the sand in the machine

 

[NYgiantsRP]

ooooooooooohhhhhhhhhh hahahah didnt read it over. i was going to say this person has one strong wasing machine.

 

[ronnieroach]

ooooooooooohhhhhhhhhh hahahah didnt read it over. i was going to say this person has one strong wasing machine.

hilarious!

 

[skiweeangel]

ooooooooooohhhhhhhhhh hahahah didnt read it over. i was going to say this person has one strong wasing machine.

hahahahahaha! I wrote fast because my class was about to start.

 

[LyndaB]

ooooooooooohhhhhhhhhh hahahah didnt read it over. i was going to say this person has one strong wasing machine.

OMG, I'm dying here......

 

[millerb7]

haha... thanks guys for the input